Once in a while, he drives the rich and famous

Staten Island Advance/Hilton FloresWilliam Lynch wears many hats as director of property management for the Nicotra Group, Bloomfield â he deals with tenantsâ leases and also drives famous people, like Barbara Walters, to and from the Hilton Garden Inn in Bloomfield.

BLOOMFIELD -- William (everyone calls him Billy) Lynch wears many hats as director of property management for the Nicotra Group, Bloomfield. He deals with tenants’ leases, slogging through and fulfilling wordy city Building Department regulations, for instance. But he also drives famous people like Barbara Walters to the Advance Women of Achievement luncheon at the Hilton Garden Inn.

As a former New York Police Department (NYPD) detective and officer, Lynch, 52, has also been faced with life-threatening situations. In 1991, he donned riot gear, along with his fellow officers, during the Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn. Throughout his two-decade NYPD career, Lynch faced danger with confidence.

Still, transporting Ms. Walters to Staten Island left him feeling “kind of scared,” he admitted.

“I was nervous because I wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong, that everything went well,” the Bulls Head resident said. “She’s such a big media star, an icon.” Lynch fetched Ms. Walters from her Upper East Side residence in Manhattan in a white Mercedes Benz (owned by Richard Nicotra).

On that cold November day in 2007, “the weather was terrible — pouring rain, roads were flooded and traffic was horrendous,” said Lynch. “I parked at the curb, went inside and met the doorman, who called to let her know someone was waiting for her. She came down 15 minutes later. She was traveling alone.”

Like other drivers of the rich and famous, Lynch knew not to initiate any conversation and to speak only when spoken to. “I was concentrating on trying to be safe. I could hear her talking business while I was driving,” he said. “In between her business calls, she mentioned the awful weather, and she kept asking me, ‘Are we going to make it on time?’¤”

“Each time, I answered, ‘I hope so,’¤” Lynch said.

Despite downpours and flooded roads, “we made it on time,” he said, recalling his feeling of relief. But the trip from Manhattan did take twice as long as usual — two and a half hours.”

During the luncheon, Lynch kept a close watch on the famous guest, possibly a side effect from his NYPD days.

“Barbara said she was impressed at the Women of Achievement’s accomplishments,” he recalls, adding that she had much praise for the seven honorees. (Their volunteer work included helping those with cancer and other health problems, restoring a historic building to its former glory, and a woman who opens her home to troubled young people, among other helpful actions.)

“She stayed after the event, spoke to people and took people’s questions. Barbara’s a big star but she’s down to earth, in fact — not at all snooty,” said Lynch, adding, “She looked like she was genuinely enjoying the day.”

Lynch then drove Ms. Walters to the ABC-TV studio in Manhattan, where the 81-year old talk show host is a star host on “The View”. Traffic and weather on the ride back were both fine, he reported.

For the 2009 Women of Achievement luncheon at the Hilton two years later, Lynch’s celebrity assignment was to pick up “The Sopranos’” actress Lorraine Bracco and her publicist from Ms. Bracco’s Manhattan apartment in Chelsea, again in a white Mercedes Benz.

Ms. Bracco, 56, best known for her role as Tony Soprano‘s probing psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (which earned her several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations) was to be the keynote speaker at the luncheon.

During the car ride, as Lynch concentrated on driving from her Chelsea apartment to the Hilton, Ms. Bracco revealed details of her life to an Advance staffer.

“I’ve gone through some very, very bad things in my life, a terrible custody battle,” she said referring to the nasty divorce from actor Harvey Keitel that ended with Bracco gaining full custody of their daughter, Stella. Due to the stress of that ordeal, “I went on medication for about a year,” she said.

“It does show that celebrities have problems too. It isn’t all rosy,” Lynch said.

Ms. Bracco (who now plays the mother to Jane Rizzoli on TNT’s “Rizzoli & Isles”) kept saying how clean and nice Staten Island was. “She said that it felt to her like she was in the country,” Lynch said. (The actress had visited Staten Island a few years earlier to introduce her new wine at an upscale Tottenville restaurant.)

On the drive back to Manhattan, Ms. Bracco was busy making plans, Lynch said, adding, “It was just before Thanksgiving and she was talking with her publicist about holding a party in the Hamptons.”

That same year, in April 2009, Lynch drove another “Sopranos” star, actor-singer Dominic Chianese who played Uncle Junior in the HBO hit series.

“I picked him up at Newark Airport; he was by himself,” said Lynch, who drove Chianese (pronounced Key-a-NAY-see) to the Hilton for his performance at Lorenzo’s Restaurant, Bar & Cabaret. His act features Italian songs that he learned as a child from his grandfather.

“Dominic is a fantastic performer,” said Lynch. The singer “explained how each song came about before singing it. My wife and I both enjoyed the show,” he said.

“Dominic stayed at the Hilton that night,” Lynch continued. “The next day, I picked up his wife from their Upper East Side apartment and drove her to see Dominic at the hotel. After his Saturday night performance, I drove them home to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. They’re very nice people —so genuine and down to earth.”

Lynch and his wife of 28 years, Marie, moved to Bulls Head in 1992 from Rockaway Park, Queens. The couple has two sons, 23 and 27, and a daughter, 17.

Lynch retired from the NYPD in 2004 after 20 years of service. He served 13 years as a police officer in Brooklyn’s 71st Precinct, and seven as a detective with the Staten Island Robbery Squad, Edgewater Plaza. In the year before retirement, he began working part-time at the Hilton as a security guard. He then heard about the opening for director of property management for the Nicotra Group.

“I applied and was hired seven years ago, in 2004,” he said. “I had no prior experience or qualification other than being a quick learner.”

Lynch said he has always enjoyed the wide variety of tasks that his property management job entails, including driving the rich and famous. “In my job, no two days are alike,” Lynch said. “That’s what makes my job interesting.”